


Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

by anthonvstrk (theravvenstag)



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Body Horror, COUNTER/Weight Spoilers, Gen, Psychological Trauma, ai!mako, september arc spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 07:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13383159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theravvenstag/pseuds/anthonvstrk
Summary: When Oricon looked at the Diaspora they looked at a behemoth. They saw nature bent to the will of machines and thought, what if machines bent to the will of nature? They saw a machine with a person to pilot it and thought, what if? They saw a computer with a mind inside and thought, what if? They saw a war, paused but not forgotten, and they got to work.But there are a thousand ways to solve a single puzzle, and the question remains, what if?Or:What if instead of being a clone Mako was an AI in an organic body?





	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so first work in the fandom, I was very excited an motivated for this and it's the first fic I've properly finished.
> 
> This is kind of high concept because I write very thematically, so, things may be unclear. Sorry, it's self-indulgent. 
> 
> In my mind, this takes place at the moment where Mako finds out he's a clone, except he finds out he's an AI instead and well....
> 
> (Credit to Jay for giving me the idea, even if it was because of that Adam Sandler post.)

 

AuDy stands with an artificial motion, looking out through the cockpit, the cavern of September is reflected off their chassis. The planet curves and bends, the thick scar of nothing reaching out and out and out.

 

"Hey buddy," Mako calls. AuDy doesn't turn, but "Looks like I'm one of you."

 

AuDy's chest encompasses all of space, then a star bursts, setting off a chain reaction that glows with a destructive light.

 

"You are not like me, I was dead metal, I am now Liberty and Discovery. You are not that."

 

And they are hollow, a command screen waiting in anticipation for answers.

 

"Well, no, but apparently I'm this AI thing which is pretty cool right? I've been hacking into computer, and it turns out I was one the whole time!"

 

A JIM unit, suddenly alive, and instantly dead as it's lights shut down and it loses the thread of sentience it was given.

 

"Shut up." They tell him, blunt as ever. And he isn't sure if it's the way they say it. He isn't sure if it's the crawling at the back of his neck, but he does.

 

Then AuDy turns to him, and suddenly his own inverted face is reflected back at him. Larry doesn't smile this time though, he opens his mouth and it cracks, Rigour crawling out, and then it's crawling out of AuDy and the pressure drops as it cracks the world open.

 

***

 

Tower looks at Mako from across a valley made of machine bones. He sees their faces strewn between the cracks. Sometimes they are ghostly projections, curled around each other in a pale imitation of intimacy. Sometimes they are masks of synthetic skin, stretched to breaking point across the sharp peaks of wires and circuits. Sometimes they are pressed to the backs of Mako's eyelids. He blinks and they are a zoetrope, they dance and they dance and they dance, silent and tender upon a graveyard of metal.

 

Tower looks at him, and he does not reach back.

 

***

 

_ The resistor was one of the most important developments of earth mechanics. It allowed the current to be reduced, so complex and more delicate machines could rune without shorting out. As you can see this principle is still... _

 

Mako thought he was starting to understand how the reality here worked. Outside the rain through itself against the window panes, as if it was trying to break him out itself. Mako wasn't looking, but he could feel Tower three seats behind him, a warm blush bleeding over his face even as his veins turned to ice.

 

He slides his body back as a test sheet is placed in front of him. What will they ask he wonders? What is the most effective way to fog a divine? Can you call Aria your friend? When was the last time you felt afraid? Why do you think that was? Do androids dream of electric sheep?

 

As he wanders the test sheet seems to glow, until it's brighter than the presence of Tower at his back, the memory of blood on his cheek.

 

It glows until the world around him becomes a tunnel and the pressure shifts, and he is in the empty body of something ancient, question marks left hanging in the air. 

 

And whilst Mako had never been a very good student, he had always known what to say.

 

_ Would you save the many or the important few? _

 

I'll save myself, I'll save them all.

 

_ Would you flee or fight? _

 

Run forward and deal the first blow.

 

_ Will you give your all to us Mako? _

 

No, he tells them. Not for you.

 

_ Then how will you die? _

 

And he answers in its own tongue:

 

_ Defiant. Defiant. Defiant. Defiant. _

  
  


***

 

Mako leans into Tower's chest as they sway to the music. Mako has never heard a piano play before, he prefers the synthetic beats that are churned out of the Joy Park icons, but the lilting melody inspires such a nostalgia he feels himself start to cry.

 

"Oh shit, are you okay?" Tower asks him, soft hands pulling him even closer to block out curious onlookers.

 

Mako just pulls him closer in response. His fingers claw at Tower's jacket and the material shreds. He does it again and the shirt falls to the floor. He hesitates, nails above thin skin as last note fades into the empty hall.

 

For a moment Mako wonders if he could cut a hole large enough to climb into Tower's body. If, after his hands were stained with blood he would be able to find purchase.

 

And for all he wanted to kiss Tower, like stupid, irrational, humans do, this isn't lustful. Mako doesn't need release, he just needs to know that he can feel this heartbeat against his cheek and his heartbeat can be felt against that chest and that these sensations are grounded in something that breathes.

 

But when Tower lifts his chin, looks at him and asks, "Are you okay?"

 

When Tower falls and looks at him, and his eyes plead, "Won't you save me?"

 

When Tower holds out his hand and smiles and asks, "Do you want to dance?"

 

He cannot reply.

 

***  
  


 

Rigour bursts from the ground and Mako bursts into it, trying to wrest control from its chaos. But instead of sterile walkways and control, he is met with flesh and lifeforce, that beats in a way that is intimate like Tower wasn’t.

 

And the body of the divine asks him:  _ are you with me? _

 

He opens his mouth to scream, to answer by refusing to play the game he'd been born into. But before he can make a sound Rigour’s body rushes in, like old gasoline, burning up the pistons too impure to handle it. And through the pain he can see it, the flesh closing in and obscuring his eyes. And then he can see it, his hands and feet cradled by tendons, waiting for Rigour to consume his heart. And then he can see it, the beast triumphant above September and it throws back his head and it laughs with a Voice it stole from him.

 

And suddenly aware, suddenly untethered, he can breathe again. So he screams and he screams and he screams, but it does not matter, his laughter is far louder. It does not matter, in every eventuality, he is still drowned in blood.

 

***

 

When Mako opens his eyes he is met with darkness. Well, to say he opens his eyes is a mistake. One moment he has eyes that are closed shut to the world and the next he is a something floating in nothing and aware of everything.

 

He if he had a brain it would be bursting from the sheer velocity of information streaming through his consciousness. In this moment he is Zeno's paradox, thinking and thinking and thinking, but never creating a thought, never moving past the magnitude of what is happening right now.

 

If he had eyes he might have wished to close them. If he had a brain he might have wished for eyes. As it is he exists in the eye of the storm and the raindrops themselves, and wills it all to come back together.

 

***

 

He wakes on the Kingdom Come with a gasp. The cliche at least is comforting. This time he's in the pilot seat and AuDy is sitting beside him.

 

"Maybe," AuDy starts, and pauses suddenly. Mako knows they've never tried to be human, but as they sit there, slouched towards them and head cocked to the side, he thinks he can finally understand how they live. "You are more like me than I thought."

 

Mako takes the controls, flesh hands placed gingerly where metal clamps usually rest. He flicks some switches and then they are flying down, drawn to the planet not by gravity, but the force of will to carry on.

 

September is still scarred. It is stormy and breaking and as ugly as the day he left it. But now the world is inverted, black snow falls and the cavern that splits its surface burns brighter than any sun.

 

He pushes up the speed. And the ground is coming up quicker now, the white tundra of space blurs into the black snow of the storm, into the white hairs of the forest. 

 

"You do know what this is right?" AuDy asks. Another question in a nightmare full of them.

 

But Mako doesn't snort, he doesn't flinch, he does not laugh. He just grips the controls tighter and keeps his eyes open, Defiant, as they're consumed by a doorway of light.

 

**Author's Note:**

> For clarification: 
> 
> These are all dreams/simulations running in Mako's head.
> 
> The reason this is happening is that realising he's an AI broke the fail-safes that allowed his mind to function almost like a human mind (yeah that line about resistors has a purpose).
> 
> Mako becomes a divine at the end because it's my fic and I can make my faves OP if I want.


End file.
